Home baking of bread and other yeast-leavened foods (herein referred to generically as “bread”) is a common and popular pastime for many people. The typical approach to home bread baking involves mixing ingredients, including flour, yeast and water, into a mass of dough, allowing the dough to rise, and then baking the dough in an oven to make bread. The dough is typically kneaded before an initial rising, and then punched down and shaped before a second rising and a final baking stage. Each rising stage generally has its own ideal temperature, with the success of the rising and the quality of the resultant bread depending strongly on maintaining the dough at a temperature that is as close as possible to the ideal temperature throughout each rising period.
Commercial bakeries use proofing ovens to maintain bread dough at ideal temperatures during each rising period. However, commercial proofing ovens are large, expensive, and generally not practical for home bread baking. Conventional home ovens are designed to be heated to relatively high cooking and baking temperatures, and are not able to provide the modestly warm temperatures needed for bread dough rising.
Warming drawers are available for home use that can operate at the lower warming temperatures needed for bread rising. However, these warming drawers must be custom built into kitchen cabinets, and are generally too high in cost to be within the price range of most home owners.
Automatic bread making machines usually include a dough rising cycle and are generally affordable for home owners. However, they require that the dough be placed in a specific baking container within the machine, and do not enable rising of dough in a mixing bowl, a conventional bread pan, and/or other dough containers according to the personal preferences of the user. Furthermore, bread making machines are typically large and bulky, and therefore difficult or inconvenient to store and/or transport. As a result, even if they are used infrequently, home bread making machines tend to occupy premium counter space in a home kitchen on a more or less permanent basis.